Great read - gives me some perspective on the issue of Islam from a unique perspective, it also gives some perspective to the aims and goals of islam -concerning? what is the first line of the prayers sees some significant bigotry? - see also the u-tube video from al Jazeera, I would recommend to any person (especially women) who wants to gather a learned perspective on this contemporary issue. Follow her blog as well. ( )

Named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in 2006, Wafa Sultan is a Syrian-born American psychiatrist who believes that the harsh desert culture Islam arose from has influenced the way Muslims conceptualize God, particularly it's negative teachings about the roles and status of women. As she is the first to admit, her critics accuse her of "cherry-picking" parts of the Koran and hadith's to support her position. Even so, as a woman who was born and lived in Syria for 30 years before immigrating to the U.S., she knows of what she speaks and is to be commended for her willingness to share her perspective, even though doing so garners her death threats from Muslims who feel threatened by those among them who would dare to challenge the status quo, considering them apostates who are damned for eternity. Although I found this book interesting, I much preferred Irshad Manji's The Trouble With Islam Today: A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith. A South Asian Muslim born in Uganda, Manji and her family immigrated to British Colombia when she was four years old. As a result, she grew up in a multicultural society where she experienced a much higher degree of freedom than did Wafa Sultan. Rather than reject Islam, Manji seeks to reform Islam, often by reminding readers of the true teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and explaining how overtime, those teachings have been twisted by his successors. Someone once said "Islam has the best religion but the worst followers", a statement that Manji seems to support, whereas Wafa Sultan uses her personal experiences to discount Islam entirely. By comparison, Manji's book is much better written and researched than Wafa Sultan's, and in the end, more optimistic about the future of Islam. ( )

When Wafa Sultan speaks of 'a god who hates', she means one who hates women, argues that people who hate their own women cannot love anyone else. Sultan argues that Islam developed among highly competitive and combative Bedouins struggling for survival in the harsh environment of the Arabian desert, and encourages a suspicious and combative outlook on life that is out of place in the contemporary world, and makes it difficult for Muslims to live on terms of respect and tolerance with other people.

It is quite interesting to contrast this book with the sunnier Red, White, and Muslim: My Story of Belief by Asma Gull Hasan. Hasan's work is a bit more happy theory, while Sultan's shows the disillusionment of someone who has seen theory fail in practice. For example, Hasan presents the argument that it is fair for men to get twice as much of an inheritance as women since men are responsible for supporting the family. One used to hear such arguments when men in the US were openly paid more for the same job than women. Sultan presents stories of husbands who die or desert their families, which happens all too often in the real world.

Sultan thinks that we should be far more wary of the potential effects of Islam on our culture. I am inclined to let people make their own decisions to the point that my friends has suggested that I have definite anarchical tendencies. I have no patience, however, with the sort of shallow, unthinking multiculturalism that regards all differences as superficial, and stupidly supposes that we can affirm everyone's beliefs, even when they are diametrically opposed.

Not the only book to read on Islam and the West, but definitely one that should be read. ( )

To my dear husband and children whose selfless love has sheltered me when not other place seemed safe

*****************

Lastly, to the memory of my beloved niece Mayyade who cut her life short by committing suicide to escape the hellish marriage imposed upon her under Islamic Sharia Law: May her tragic account be an eternal inspiration to all who are privileged to live in free societies. May her story encourage all those who have been subjugated to tyranny--especially women--to become well informed and to persevere beyond fear and intimidation. And a challenge: To those whose spirits uphold the principles of justice and freedom of speech--May Mayyada's story, and that of many more whose stories have never been told, embolden you to speak up against the unjust and immoral treatment of women in the Muslim world.

First words

Most Muslims, if not all of them, will condemn me to death when they read this book.

Wikipedia in English (1)

From the front page of The New York Times to YouTube, Dr. Wafa Sultan has become a force radical Islam has to reckon with. For the first time, she tells her story and what she learned, first-hand, about radical Islam in A God Who Hates, a passionate memoir by an outspoken Arabic woman that is also a cautionary tale for the West. She grew up in Syria in a culture ruled by a god who hates women. “How can such a culture be anything but barbarous?”, Sultan asks. “It can’t”, she concludes “because any culture that hates its women can’t love anything else.” She believes that the god who hates is waging a battle between modernity and barbarism, not a battle between religions. She also knows that it’s a battle radical Islam will lose. Condemned by some and praised by others for speaking out, Sultan wants everyone to understand the danger posed by A God Who Hates.